Hi puglvr,

Wah wee ... way to go, Puglvr! I didn't get to read your post until today and was pleasantly surprised with such beautiful pictures of your lychee Mauritius with so much fruit loaded on her. I think as lychees mature and when in good health, they can really put up a show like that. What a darling!

As for my lychees, well ... I'll try to be positive about it, but fact of the matter is there are some odds to overcome in my yard. First off, my Brewster which started off with a crown full of blooms has since the beginning of the year been plagued with those awful web worms. I heard from a plant vender that Oak tree is one of the hose plants for web worms. Guess what, I have one humongous oak tree hanging over from the neighbor's yard to mine where Brewster was planted. So even though my Brewster is such a healthy good girl, she isn't strong enough to fight the invaders. I did not know how to treat it until I found out that BT (Bacillus Thuringensis) which is a kind of bacteria can be used to slow down the growth of the web worms. What the bacteria does is destroy the digestive system of the lavae and stop them from chomping those delicate blooms and young fruit of the lychee. Anyway, since the beginning of this year, my Brewster has lost a whole pot full of blooms. It's so sad to see the destruction. Any way, fast forward, after I found out to spray BT on Brewster and all my other lychees, it does some wonders. Some of my Brewster's blooms were salvaged and they were able to form fruit--albeit in March!. Now the size of the fruit is about half the size of a pea. Boy the web worms still aren't giving up attacking them yet--some fruitlets are beginning to drop off now. Time is the essence here. The fruit that grow larger and escape the attacks will be less likely to drop off. Hopefully, many of them will stay on .... In any case, a lesson to learn in lychee planting is--don't plant them close to an oak tree. Now I know why my 6 years old Hak Ip hasn't been able to fruit for me all this while. It seems these web worms will also attack mangoes. I have seen their web on my Pickering. So, I've been spraying BT on my mangoes as well. There sure is so much to learn still ...

The good news is my potted Mauritius is happily fruiting and I counted more than 30 fruit on it. Just at the height of 4 ft tall and doing so well. I will see if I can take some pictures to share.

Thanks so much for sharing your pictures, Puglvr. When your Mauritius fruit are ripe, you're going to see lots of them like Christmas decorations :)
As for me, I'm hoping my Brewster will fare ok in the end and I can still get some fruit from her. She's a real trooper and I'm hoping for the best for her.

Puglvr,

Here are some pictures of my yard lychees:

Big Brewster:
The picture here showing the bloom spikes, but as you can see the fruit are not as dense because many of them have dropped off either still as blooms or after they have formed into tiny fruitlets.

Now they have formed into fruitlets ... they are beginning to drop off. These are the dropped fruitlets from a couple of days. For a week, it has been dropping fruit at this rate... I think the web worms can still attack the fruitlets when they are young. I'm hoping that they will grow bigger quickly and escape from the veracious appetite of these varmints.

BIG MAURITIUS

The big Mauritius that survived the frost some years back is fruiting for the first time after the frost. The blooms have also been attacked by the web worms coming down from the huge oak tree in the neighbor's yard. You can see some fruit hanging on for dear life.

BIG SWEETHEART

Big sweetheart's problem is fruiting sparsely, but the fruit look to be doing good. Right now only 4-5 pinnacles are fruiting and the fruit are scarce too. But it's better than last year when only 1-2 pinnacles were showing up fruit and I ended up eating only 1-2 of its fruit and all from a tree that has grown to 15 ft tall. It must be a lychee humor :)

POTTED MAURITIUS

This few years old potted Mauritius seems to be doing fine. I kept it at a location that is far from the oak tree, so it has escaped the attack. These web worms apparently attack the young leaves of lychees even before they start sending out bloom spikes. The size of the fruit has grown to close to the size of a kidney bean.

POTTED BREWSTERS

I have two of them and I think both got the web worms too which explains for the dropped fruit.

Another potted Brewster:

HAK IP: Hak Ip has dropped all its blooms ... sad to say. This year it had a lighter bloom than the last. Even so, last year's blooms also all dropped off. It was planted close to another Oak tree sitting in between the neighbor and our front yard. I think I can remove it if I wanted it removed, but it has grown to be so huge that it might be difficult to doso. Anyway, I will try spraying BT early on in the season and see what happens next year.

I'm hoping by posting all these info, lychee growers will get a little off from my experience and also offer me some helpful hints or advice as to how I can do better with growing my lychees.

As for your Lychee Mauritius, Puglvr, I was curious if it grew new bloom spikes for you, or did your "fried" bloom spikes somehow survived the freeze and fruit for you? I ask you this question as I thought I saw some late flushes sending out bloom spikes on my Mauritius, but not ALL new flushes grew into blooms though (only some). Anyway, I hope this isn't too long a post to read. How are your mangoes doing? Would love to see their updates too. I will try to post some of my Picker and Carrie mangoes too. The others aren't doing well.

Hi bananafan, I am SO sorry to hear about the webworms that have invaded your Lychee trees...Hopefully, you will still have some to eat this summer.

My mango trees have suffered SO badly this year as far as blooms go...first it was attaced with Powdery Mildew then the freeze nailed it...very few mangoes for me this year...SO sad!

I was told I need to spray Sulfur for Powdery mildew...I will be doing that next year as soon as I start to see the first signs of bloom...hoping that will take care of it...but then I have to worry about the freeze,lol...NO spray for that!!

I'm glad you found something to treat (BT) for webworms...you will be able to spray your trees next year and hopefully save a lot more lychees.

Just so you know...I am also finding baby fruitlets on the ground...I was told this is very normal...thinning out the weak and keeping the healthiest fruits on the tree. Windy days seems to cause the tiny fruitlets to drop...**sigh**...but I'm not complaining. Even if I get half of them to maturity...it will still be my best year!

As far as my blooms...it did not rebloom...those are the same blooms that I originally had in January. When I had the late Freeze I started to noticed the blooms turning a darker shade of brown...I naturally assumed the blooms got "fried" from the freeze...but miraculously almost all of them survived!! I was SO shocked and extremely happy!

My potted Hak ip bloomed for the first time this year...but sadly ALL the blooms dried up, so no fruits from that small tree this year :o(...but the tree is very young, only had it for a couple of years...the trunk is quite thin. For now I'm going to keep it fertilized (lightly) and lots of water and see if I can get it to grow more and hopefully in a couple of years...it wil finally hold a few fruits.

Your trees look GREAT!! Lychee trees are SO beautiful...even without fruits they are very attractive trees! Of course having fruit on them makes them even more appealing,lol...frosting on the cake so to speak!

Good luck to us both on getting some delicious fruits this year!!Good luck with the BT treatments...

So the Lychees are almost ripe...another week or so :o)

Hubby put an Owl on top of tree last week to scare the birds away...so far its working

Hi Puglvr,

Aww ... my heart just melts at such beautiful and impressive pictures of your lychee fruit laden tree. All the pinnacles are holding on to their fruit. That to me is a precious and rare sight to behold. This is one moment that a gardener will feel good toiling so hard for their fruit trees and you must feel very proud of your Mauritius right now :) I think the fruit should be good for eating end May to beginning June? Please let me know how your first tasting goes.

As for my lychee patch here, lots of "interesting" challenges here.

First off, I just learned (an expensive lesson though) that lychee trees planted close to Oak trees can end in disasters. Oak trees are hosts to web worm

and web worm can do a lot of damage to lychee fruit production. Not only lychees, but mangoes as well. So, this year, damage has been observed

to my big Mauritius and big Brewster and juvenile Hak Ip. It causes fruit

to drop off quickly before maturing. With the BT spray, it help saved some,

but too much damage has been done and the fruit development is delayed

and stunted and this causes more fruit to drop off. So, whatever fruit that is now remaining on these two big lychee trees are still green and small. At this

time of the year, they should be changing color already!

Picture of Big Mauritius:

Pictures of Big Brewster:

Fortunately, one potted Mauritius was spared and it's now producing

close to 20 fruit. Not much of an anything, but it's a little comfort there. I came up with the idea with the mosquito net I got from Ikea to cover my

blueberry and then I added the lychee pot in to the net too.

Puglvr, I happened to see an owl on your lychee tree. I thought that was

such a cute idea. Did it keep the critters away from your fruit so far? It

must have as your fruit all look in tact there.

A close up of the fruit. I noticed though that there are some black patches

on the lychee. I don't know what they are ...

In the mean time, I saw some lychee at an Asian grocery store and I bought some back to taste. Guess what, some of them also have black blotches on them. I also noticed that the skin is very brittle and the fruit tasted sourish.

Picture below: store bought lychees

Lastly, my big Sweetheart which isn't planted close to an Oak tree, is producing fruit, but it's a joke. I'm getting a dozen fruit from it this year. OK enough of a comedy. I'm going to just enjoy whatever it's giving me :)

Picture of Sweetheart fruit:

Thanks Puglvr for your update and pictures. I was going to comment on your last post, but I got so distracted here because of some termite problems. I just found out that I needed tenting. But, I'm sorry to hear that your mangoes weren't doing well. Are you able to treat them with sulphur? The Pickering

that you recommended for me to get has produced a lot of fruitlet, but

the web worms have been disturbing the tree. It has a few fruit left. I hope they hang on there for their dear life. Carrie which is planted away from

the web worm territory is doing a lot better.

Sorry for this long post. Please keep more pictures coming in. I love seeing how healthy your lychee fruit is developing into. Good job, Puglvr!

Thanks Banana!! I'm sorry about the webworms on your Pickeing... I should have never pruned my mango tree SO late last year...I think I only have 2 fruits this year. I will NOT prune this year and hope for a better year. I never treated the mango trees with Sulphur, it was way too late by the time I realized it...but I will treat them next year!

Thanks for the pictures of your tree, they look great...I hope you get to enjoy all the lychees that are left on your tree...I LOVE your Mosquito net idea!! So far the "owl" has been working...but its only been up about a week. My husband moves it around the trees every 3 days to keep the aminals guessing,lol...Not sure how long it will work. Someone posted a picture on another forum of using "plastic snakes" the toy ones you buy at Kmart in the toy dept. They placed several of the around the base of the tree...might try that if necessary,lol...

Sounds like the lychees you purchased from the Asian store were picked too early, probably why they are sour. The blotches must mean its locally grown?

Good luck to us both...hope we get to enjoy our home grown fruits this summer...few as they are haha!

Nancy

Had to harvest some of them even though I wanted to let them ripen a little more as the SQUIRRELS are out in full force now :o(...they were eating even the ones that were still mostly green!!! GRRRRR!!! Luckily, most of them are ripe/sweet enough! This variety doesn't get as red as Brewsters or the other types...

Had to put most of them in plastic Clam shells...the squirrels can't seem to open these so far?

Wow .. you sure have a hefty harvest of lychees there. How did the tasting go? Are they sweet? Yesterday, I came across more lychee for sale at an Asian grocery, but I did not buy them since the last batch I bought was kind of tart. When ripen, they're supposed to taste sweet, but you're right that the Mauritius ripens earlier than the others. I think the store bought ones might have been the Brewster or Sweetheart variety that ripen a little later in June.

Anyway, about my lychees here. The fruit on my Brewster finally stopped dropping a few days ago. Now the fruit are still green and about the size of a Brazil nut, but so many have dropped in the past couple of months. It was hard to watch them dropped as they grew. In any case, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some will remain.

Two out of my mangoes are fruiting. Pickering despite being affected by the web worm was able to hang on to about 7 fruit. I'm hoping that I'll get something out of it at harvest time. Carrie was carrying a dozen of fruit, but started dropping and now I think I've got 6-7 left. The fruit that dropped was the size of a huge egg. I don't know what causes the drop.

Your plastic boxes are a good idea. I hope you're able to beat those critters to the lychees ... lol. It would be a waste of effort after you've gone through so much to bring them to fruition. Thanks, Nancy for the heart warming lychee picture. A healthy harvest is always such a great inspiration :) I hope you'll slowly savor those yummy lychees. I might be able try my handful of Sweetheart and Mauritius soon. Since I wrapped them up with my little laundry bags, I'll wait until they start dropping off before harvesting. I usually like to chill them first before eating them. I'll let you know how they taste. Hopefully I'll also have something to tell you about my Brewster--whether some of the fruit will turn up ok or not.

Hi bananafan! Fingers crossed the rest of your Lychees and mangoes that are left on the tree make it to full maturity!

Yes, I would say 90% of the lychees I picked were sweet, not super sweet like I would have like had I been able to leave it on the tree longer...but I'd rather eat them a little less sweet than give them to the squirrels/critters! But they are definitely sweet enough to eat, not tart...I still have a lot to pick in the next week...should be completely ripened by the first week of June.

Here's what it looks like after I put all the Clam shels on it...mind you I have found a few of the clam shells on the ground after the squirrels try to pry them open, I guess they fall but the good news is most of them (as long as it doesn't break open when it hits the ground) the lychees are still inside :o)...so I get to save "most" of them!

My Mangoes are definitely light this year too...but I should have several to enjoy come late June or July...Good luck to us both!!

Hi Nancy,

Your Mauritius there looks so yummy :) I'm glad you've started to taste some already. Yeah .. for some reason, even the store bought ones aren't as sweet this year. I've noticed that the fruit on my Brewsters are especially small, but those on my Sweetheart are growing larger and plumber. I haven't really tasted Sweetheart yet, except one or two which it gave last year. I remember it being the sweetest among the rest. Brewster is kind of sweet and sour--the balance there is rather refreshing.

The crazy dropping on my big Brewster has stopped last week and some
of the fruit that hung on for dear life are beginning to turn pinkish, but they're still very small in size. We'll see what happens. I think Brewster has a later harvest in June.

The dozen fruit on my Carrie has dwindled to 3-4. I don't know the reason for their dropping even when the size reaches that of a small pear. I think it must have been some kind of disease that is bothering it. But, my Pickering is doing much better with about 12 fruit growing bigger. I think this must be a more hardy variety. If it's successful in bearing all these fruit, I'll be getting a couple more to replace the rest .. lol !!!

Thanks for the update on your Mauritius. Look forward to seeing more
of your succulent fruit :) I'll post some pictures
when I get a chance to take some. Enjoy your harvest for now.